Tile flooring.



D. E. KENNEDY,

TILE FLOORING.

AYPLIGATION FILED 11mm, 1911.

1 ,054,424, Patented Feb. 25, 1913.

www 7. r ma Q @uw expense of laying such tiles on account of .ffrllowinUNITED STATES PATENT oEEIoE.

DAVID E. KENNEDY, OF NEW YORK. N. Y.

'rits rLoosINe. l

Bpeciacatibp of Letters Yatent.

Patented Feb. 25, 1913.

Application aled December-"18, 1911. Serial No. 686,278.

To all whomt may concern:

Be it known that I, Davm E. '1{ENNED'Y, a citizen of the VUnited States,-residin .in the city, county, and State of New. ork, have inventedcertain new and usefulgImproveniente .in Tile Flooring, of which the isa specification.`

The o geotof my invention is to improve the art o tile fiooring and toovercome the existing diiculties in constructing a floor having a treadsurface of cork or similar tiling upon a hard non-pierceable base ofconcrete or similar material,l and the invention consists in rovidinmeans whereby the tiles may be -aid wit aout the use of weights, and inthe various features of construction and combinations of parts h inafterset forth and claimed. -Heretofore oorlr and similar tiling .that -isyielding and that tends to absorb moisture and to expand and contractunder varying atmospheric conditions and which possessesother'characteristic properties,has been most satisfactorily applied towooden tloors'to which the tiles could be securely nailed. Although -thebenefits and advan es of covering a cement floor with a trea layerofcork or similar material seem obvious, the use of cork tiles on such acement base has been limited because 'of the ditliculty and thecharacteristics of the material itself, and specially on account of thedifficulty of securing the tiles to the base. It is necessary to squeezesuch tiles together under .pressure when being laid to prevent theformat-ion of cracks between adjacent tiles and this tends to cause thetiles to spring away from the top of the concrete base. Als on accountof the inequalities of the surface of the corcrete base, air pocketstendtoform beneath the tiles, thus rendering ineicient any ndlfiesivethat might be put on the concrete surace.

Various attempts have been made to overcome the bulging of the treadsurface and the formation of air pockets, particularly by placing bagsof sand or iron weights over the entire oor surface until the bulgingofthe tiles and any tendency to curl at the edges was overcome. But auchattempts have proven impractical, owing to the ex )ense and delayinvolved. I have discovered, iowever, that a tread layer consistin oftiles of coi-1c or similar material may be aid upon 'a concrete base byproviding an interposed \layer, which may be bonded, both totheconletevor other hard base and 'to the cork trhad and which issufficiently soft to permit the\tiles to be nailed into intimatecontact.

to said layer, but which will be sufiiciently hard to form a firmsupport for the tiles. Such intermediate layer may he made of cement andsand with' a yielding filler, such as sawdust, factor' ashes, asbestos,ranulated cork and li e materials, whici will serve the good offices ofa wooden door for receiving the nails and att-he same time make itpossible to have the desirable solid wooden flooring.

The drawing forminga part of this specification is a tion of suc a oo'r,the tiles being shown at the front in section to more clearly show theattaching nails.

My floor thus comprises a non-pieceable base, which may be of usualreinforced concrete constructioir. or oth rwise as de'- sired. U on thisbasel is lai the composition capa le of receiving nails and being bondedto the tiles, and upon .this are laid the tiles, which are then nailedin place. The tiles are preferabl cemented to the compositionbackin andyalso to each other -at their abutting edgges bya suitable lue oradhesive. The com sition,' as is o vious, will be thoroughly onded tothey base or concrete floor roper. This rovides a solid floorsubstantially as if mat e in que piece, but which comprises thedesirable hardbnse,

Athe desirable cork, or other similar tiling, and the intermediate layerof composition 'cement which Hoes not detract from the qualities of thehard base beneath it,.but serves to permit the tiles tc' be nailed Ainplace.

In the drawing the part indicated by A represents a hard concrete base,its upper portion onlybeing shown, asany hard floor mav be used.

The part. B represents the composition materia Portions of six'tiles Care shown-` the front'one bein shownin section to more clearly show t enails, and the bounding lines J are also intended torepresentn thinlayer of adhesive cement. Brads are preferably used in nailing the.tiles, andl the final blow given them is directed toward driving themsomewhat below the surface of the with `the surface thereof while beingbonded concrete flooring instead of the undesirable perspective viewshowing a'por llO . ticular cement composition, it o'nl necessary thatthe composition unite wit the desired results may be used.

grout. This groutingb not absolutel ter resu tile, as shown` in thedrawing, so that' when 'the tile recoils from. the blow, the puncturewill close above the 'brad to conceal it. Enough of these brads areapplied around the e es of the tiles or elsewhere to securely old themin lace.

I o not wish tolimit myself to anygparein the concrete base to form alsolid floor and at thesame time to be capable of receiving the nails. Ihave found that sawdust, as-

l bestos, granulated cork or cindcrs may he ,"satisfactorily used as afiller, but I do not limit myself to these, as other fillers ving n Vhenusing cinders, a goodfcom osition is made by using one part Atlasortland cement (or its equivalent), two parts screened sand,

land tive parts fine, clean, screened anthracite cinders, or four partssoft coal cinders. The

pared b tirstthoroughly sweeping and then soa in with water.' Dry cementis then sprink on the wet surface, which may be spread with a broom toforni d thin grout over the entire surface' of the concrete. Thecomposition is then laid on this essential, but it gives lts. z fter 1tis thoroughly dry, the cork tiling is laid,

which should preferably be within a month after the composition isapplied. The layer ofcomposition should -be at least one inch thick tovgive thebest results, and troweled -to a smooth sidewalk finish.

Having thus described' my invention, I claimzge 1..-A p, nnanent-flooring comprising a lurali't of non-h0mogeneous superimposed'ljayersgcrrnin an integral structure comrisinga har non-pierceablebase, a yieldmg non-metallic .wear or tread layer ccmprising a pluralityof independent -units or tiles and. an interposed layer between the baseand tread la ers, said intermediate layer being relative y softer thanthe base la er and adapted to'be pierced by metullio securing means whenin a dry condition.

2. A permanent Hooi-ing formed of a plurality of non-homogeneoussuperimposed layers, com rising a concrete base, an intermediate ayerconsisting of a relatively soft composition bonded to the base layer` atread ayei` consisting of a plurality of tiles of non-mineral yieldingmaterial, an adhesive between said intermediatelayer and tread layer,and independent securing means engaging with the intermediate layer forholding the bottoms of said tiles in intimate contact with the surfaceof the intermediatc layer while said adhesive hardens. y f- In testimonywhereof I have hereunto set my hand in the )resence of two witnesses.AVID E. KENNEDY. Witnesses: A

Ma'rzLna DavinsoN, JULIA K." CLARKE.

Gabin o! this patent may be obtained for an cents noli, ,by addressingthe I"Commissioner ot latente.

l Washington, D. 0. i

